A little lower than the angels

FRANCES JOSEPH-GAUDET EDUCATOR AND PRISON REFORMER (30 December 1934) Merciful God, who raised up your servant Frances Joseph-Gaudet to work for prison reform and the education of her people: Grant that we, encouraged by the example of her life, may work for those who are denied the fullness of life by reasons of incarceration and lack of access to education ; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen In the week following the Feast of the Nativity on Christmas Day our calendar gives us celebrations of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr; St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, the Holy Innocents, and Thomas Becket. Then, on New Year's Day, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The name of "Jesus" is given to him because he is a "Savior" or "Deliverer". That from which we are delivered is our sins, corporate and individual, things done and left undone. The sin of the world is on displ...

Christmas Eve 2009 St. Paul’s Church, Bellingham, WA Dear friends, Merry Christmas. Some years ago the book Children’s Letters to God was published, and it contained this gem: Dear God, Are you real? Some people don't believe it. If you are, you'd better do something quick. —Love, Harriet Anne [i] Harriet Anne speaks for all of us at some time or other, even those of us who proclaim publicly our faith. We all at times wonder where God is when the latest outrage hits the front page, or when sudden calamity strikes nearby. Harriet Anne asks the question that summarizes the Advent Season, the season of waiting for God’s deliverance. “You’d better do something quick”, Harriet Anne insists. Implicit here is her understanding that we cannot seem to save ourselves from ourselves. The twentieth-century mystic Simone Weil agrees. “We cannot take one step towards the heavens. God crosses the universe and comes to us.” [ii] Tonight the Season of Ad...

I thought of the following quote as I saw this video, shot just over the border. Enjoy. "It is a great mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion." - William Temple in The Hope of A New World. Vancouver - Testing the Canon 7D from brandon moza on Vimeo .

"While we deliberate, he reigns; when we decide, he reigns; when we decide foolishly, he reigns; when we serve him in humble loyalty, he reigns; when we serve him self-assertively, he reigns; when we rebel and seek to withhold our service, he reigns -- the Alpha and the Omega, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." -William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (1881-1944) in a sermon at Lambeth Conference. Quoted in Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality by Richard H. Schmidt (Eerdmans, 2002), p. 258. "It is a great mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion." -William Temple in The Hope of A New World (1940). Quoted in Schmidt, p262. Image: Christus Rex by Peter Eugene Ball, Sculptor at The Cathedral and Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Southwell Minster) Nottinghamshire. 1987.

In an age when the traditional church is facing all the currents of post-modernity, including a loss of denominational loyalty and a crisis with regard to membership, what might the renewal of the mission of the church look like? I like the ideas of the Gospel and Our Culture Network , which takes inspiration from the work of Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, who asked and pursued the answers to basic questions about the purpose and mission of the church. Here's their list of characteristics of what we'd call a missional church; a church that hasn't forgotten that it exists only to serve the mission of God embodied in Jesus Christ: 1. The missional church proclaims the gospel. What it looks like: The story of God’s salvation is faithfully repeated in a multitude of different ways . 2. The missional church is a community where all members are involved in learning to become disciples of Jesus. What it looks like: The disciple identity is held by all; growth in discipleship is...

The Celebration of Christ the King means that there is an authority above worldly ones, and that it looks just like Jesus. Earthly leaders all have feet of clay, and Christians should have modest expectations in that regard. But we are called each day for service to one whose reign is the reversal of all the sorry abuses of power that we can lay at the feet of humanity. We are called in hope, to receive the kingdom that is not of this world, but that is present in this world. I'm not preaching on the Revelation passage tomorrow, so I'll pass along the above image and these notable words of John Wesley from his treatment of that chapter one of that book in his Notes on the Whole Bible: "...He is here styled a prince: but by and by he hears his title of king; yea, King of kings, and Lord of lords." This phrase, the kings of the earth, signifies their power and multitude, and also the nature of their kingdom. It became the Divine Majesty to call them kings with a limi...

Sunday, November 22 is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, on which we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. Here's a thought: "...The Lord's Prayer, then, just might be the most subversive of all political acts: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." People who live and pray this way have a very different agenda than Caesar's, whether Republican or Democrat, whether capitalist, socialist or communist, whether democratic or theocratic, for they have entered a kingdom, pledged their allegiance to a ruler, and submitted to the reign of Christ the King...." A fine essay from Daniel Clendenin on the meaning of Jesus as King Nederlands: Christus Koning (1936) Jan Eloy Brom & Leo Brom, Groningen (NL) Hans Holbein, Pilate Washing his Hands , design for a stained glass window. Kunstmuseum Basel , c. 1528.

Edmund was King of East Anglia When fearsome foes troubled his ganglia Those Danes would him hassle and make him their vassal He chose death from his true Anglophilia. Edmund of East Anglia, king and martyr, 870

"If the church is the people and not the institution, it seems to me some significant implications follow at once: (1) What happens on Sunday morning is not half so important as what happens on Monday morning.... (2) It is the lay people who are the key agents in the ministry of reconciliation. The clergy are the support system.... (3) There are no second-class citizens in the household of God...Indicative of the tragic confusion of the two churches, for me, is that as clergy assumed institutional power,...lay people gave up to them religious authority as well.... (4) The clergy are also part of the church, the people of God; and therefore their first, their prime loyalty should be to the church, the people of God. Everything they do for the church, the institution, must clearly be in the service of the church, the people of God." -Verna Dozier in The Calling of the Laity , as quoted in Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality , by Richard H. Schmidt, pa...

19 November 1231 The numerous "St. Elizabeth's Hospitals" throughout the world are for the most part named, not for the Biblical Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, but for this princess of Hungary. She was concerned for the relief of the poor and the sick, and with her husband's consent she used her dowry money for their relief. During a famine and epidemic in 1226, while her husband was away in Italy, she sold her jewels and established a hospital where she nursed the sick, and opened the royal granaries to feed the hungry. After her husband's death in 1227, her inlaws, who opposed her "extravagances," expelled her from Wartburg. Finally an arrangement was negotiated with them that gave her a stipend. She became a Franciscan tertiary (lay associate) and devoted the remainder of her life to nursing and charity. She sewed garments to clothe the poor, and went fishing to feed them. -James Kiefer at James Kiefer's Hagriographs Image: The Charity...

Matthew 25:31-40 Jesus said, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, `Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ...

Mission & Evangelism - The Five Marks of Mission The Mission of the Church is the mission of Christ To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom To teach, baptise and nurture new believers To respond to human need by loving service To seek to transform unjust structures of society To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth (Bonds of Affection-1984 ACC-6 p49, Mission in a Broken World-1990 ACC-8 p101) Reviewing the 'Five Marks of Mission' At its second meeting (Ely 1996), MISSIO began reviewing the 'Five Marks of Mission' as developed by the Anglican Consultative Council between 1984 and 1990. We recognise with gratitude that the Five Marks have won wide acceptance among Anglicans, and have given parishes and dioceses around the world a practical and memorable "checklist" for mission activities. However, we have come to believe that, as our Communion travels further along the road towards being mission-centred, ...

November 16 Reading Reggie McNeal's Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church has me thinking about the renewal of the mission of the Church in our day. That renewal has to do with understanding ourselves as the Body of Christ doing ministry in Christ's name in the world; bringing blessing and challenge. This is nothing new, of course. Our calendar as Episcopalians is full of examples of those who "got" this; who knew that Church was not a private club for the saved, but a body of people called to reconciling and restorative work in the world in the name of Jesus Christ. Take Queen Margaret of Scotland, for example, about whom we read: "...Now and then she helped herself to something or other out of the King’s private property, it mattered not what it was, to give to a poor person; and this pious plundering the King always took pleasantly and in good part. It was his custom to offer certain coins of gold upon Maundy Thursday and at High...

I was once asked to comment on the following: “The worship is over, let the service begin.” Here's my reply: While I appreciate the play on words in this saying, I’m not satisfied with this statement, in that it seems to perpetuate the idea that worship and service are separate. To worship is to ascribe worth to something or someone, and thus to organize our lives around the object of worship. In that sense, the object of our worship will be apparent –intentionally or unintentionally - in the way in which we organize and prioritize our life energy. Our Eucharistic liturgies proclaim the Kingdom of God and enlist our lives in service to the priorities of God’s dominion as shown us in Jesus Christ. “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere , to give thanks to you…” we pray. “Unite us to your Son in his sacrifice”, we pray in Prayer B of Rite II. “Send us out to do the work you have given us to do”, we pray, “to love and serve you as faithful witnesses ...